Polaris adds Gammies Groundcare to dealer network

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Polaris adds Gammies Groundcare to dealer network: Polaris Off Road is pleased to welcome Gammies Groundcare to its UK dealer network. Based in Forfar, Scotland, Gammies Groundcare provides its products and services in the surrounding 50-mile radius including across Angus, Fife, and Aberdeenshire.  

After being founded in 1968, Gammies Groundcare began with a focus in agricultural equipment. As the business grew, the focus changed from agricultural machinery to groundcare equipment and Gammies was soon acknowledged as the equipment specialists in and around Aberdeen and Angus.

Polaris adds Gammies Groundcare to dealer network

Polaris adds Gammies Groundcare to dealer network

Supplying a huge variety of equipment including lawn, garden, agricultural, horticultural and groundcare equipment as well as being part of the A.M. Phillips group, it seemed only fitting to expand the range to offer Polaris Off Road Vehicles.

“Polaris provides such a great depth of vehicle range which our customers are looking for,” said Les Gammie, Branch Manager. “The product development and innovation is incredible it is something we feel our customers would benefit from. We really like the way that Polaris vehicles can be customised with the hundreds of accessories they offer.”

Gammies Groundcare will offer the full Polaris line-up including the RANGER, Sportsman and RZR brands as well as the Youth line-up.

As well as offering the full line-up, Gammies has its own workshop which is filled with experienced engineers who provide servicing, repair and maintenance of an extensive variety of equipment, including the brands they sell and more. Gammies’ engineers provide services both onsite and in the workshop.

For more information on Gammies Groundcare visit: https://gammies.co.uk/.

For more information, please contact the Polaris ORV Media Office at press@polaris-orv.media.

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Microdochium Trials Days at Origin Amenity Solutions fully booked

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Microdochium Trials Days at Origin Amenity Solutions fully booked: Origin Amenity Solutions (OAS) has run its second successful event looking at the current UK research into Microdochium management on Tuesday 21st and Wednesday 22nd November.

The informative trial days were held at the state-of-the-art OAS Turf Science & Technology Centre in Dunmow, Essex.

Microdochium Trials Days at Origin Amenity Solutions fully booked

Microdochium Trials Days at Origin Amenity Solutions fully booked

OAS Research & Development Director Geoff Fenn comments, “We have been overwhelmed by the positive response to our ‘Microdochium Trial Days’.  We initially marketed this as a one-day event, but the places filled up incredibly quickly, so we extended this to a second day, which again was full in no time. In total, we hosted almost 200 delegates over the 2 days.”

The informative event offered delegates the opportunity to visit several stations around the research centre, discussing products and best practices to manage Microdochium and maintain healthy turf over the Autumn/Winter period.

Geoff Fenn discussed the importance of collecting data to optimise application timings. Discussions included growth ratio, clip volume, nitrogen inputs, and potassium inputs. The new OAS Agronomic Tracker to record this information is now available – use the QR code below. If you need any support on how to use this, please contact OAS on 0800 138 7222.

Agronomy and Technical Manager, Kelly-Marie Clack presented the 2022/23 trial results of adopting the 20-20-30 + Mantle programme using UK Growth Potential to build an IPM plan. Kelly discussed how to integrate the new biocontrol, Harmonix from Envu, into programmes successfully. Elsewhere, Trials & Digital Platform Manager Angus Finlayson demonstrated the positive results of using OAS Dewcure, penetrants, and robotic dew removal, to reduce leaf wetness.

OAS Product and Sales Manager Kevin Scarce gave an overview and demonstration of TurfKeeper, the company’s web-based portal that gives turf industry professionals a fully integrated operations and management solution. The system provides complete control and transparency over staff management, task planning, machinery management, inventory control, chemical applications, and budgeting. He explained how information can be recorded in Turfkeeper.

Dr. Deidre Charleston, Research Manager from the microbial arm of OAS delivered a workshop on building a suppressive soil to support your disease management plan.

Finally, Phil Logan from Envu and Origin Amenity Solutions Technical Manager for Chemicals Peter Corbett spoke in detail about the latest technologies in biocontrols. They discussed managing disease and the benefits of Harmonix Turf Defense, exploring a Preventative versus Curative approach to turf management.

Geoff concludes, “OAS is fully committed to continuous improvement within the industry, exploring new product solutions; testing, and producing data for the market. These trial days are a prime example of this, and the team and I are delighted with how successful they have been and the positive feedback we all received.”

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Could grass intruder cause the trend of plastic carpet?

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Could grass intruder cause the trend of plastic carpet?: Look all around you and there is grass thriving everywhere – on road verges, in parks and on hillsides. And 40 years ago, it was the same in our gardens. Back then, your average lawn was an amazing thing. It might not always have been in tip-top condition, but it soldiered on, year after year.

So why do so many modern lawns fail? Why is failure almost built-in?

Could grass intruder cause the trend of plastic carpet?

Could grass intruder cause the trend of plastic carpet?

Welcome to one of the biggest mistakes or cons in the history of lawn care.

The idea is brilliantly simple – sell a product you know will eventually fail, let the users blame themselves for not doing things right – and they’ll keep coming back to buy some more. And what is that product?  Ryegrass; is a grass sold for its strength, its fast germination and its good colour. But ryegrass was never intended for lawns and wasn’t used in lawns before the 1990s. And it has NO place in them today.

Let me tell you about this ‘apparent ‘wonder grass…

Some say it is a native species, having been around since at least the 1600s. But back then this coarse perennial grass was sown and grown as cattle feed. Yes, you read that right!  Fast-forward to the 1980s and some enterprising seed breeders created a much finer ryegrass specifically for use on winter sports grounds. It’s a tough grass, just what’s needed to cope with the rough and tumble of football.

Just ten or so years later, in the 1990s, this wonder grass suddenly starts to flood our gardens, added to our native fescue seed mixes.  Hurrah, they cry, it’s just what gardeners have been asking for, a tough and fast-growing grass that can withstand the rigours of modern family living!  And a drought-tolerant species too. That’s all true, but…

… it’s what they didn’t tell you that counts.
In the 1600s, farmers were sowing new ryegrass each and every year. And today the footie pitch maintenance crews are sowing new pitches each and every year. Because if they didn’t, they would soon have bare soil.

The science is really simple to understand. All grass plants have a finite life and need replacing. But our traditional grasses do most of that all by themselves. A brand new bent or fescue plant grown from seed will grow more plants (sideways) through shoots and stolons, and these in turn will grow more plants sideways, and so on – hence, a healthy native lawn is pretty much self-sustaining.

Ryegrass doesn’t do this. One plant is only ever one plant. When it dies, that’s it, no little baby grasses to carry on the family line. No, the only option is to go out and spend more money on more seed and start again.

That’s why the grass is killing your lawn

Keeping a ryegrass or majority ryegrass lawn thick and lush requires repeated reseeding. So, as your lawn starts to look thin and bare, you go off to buy some more of this “wonder grass” seed. Ker-ching go the shop tills, and up go the shareholder dividends as gardeners buy more grass seed than ever before.

So, avoid the ‘failure’ seed and buy instead what has always worked.

What about those hillsides, mountains, parks, road verges and all those houses pre-dating 1990? Why aren’t those grasses dying off each year? It’s because they are predominantly traditional British bents and fescues and other native species– the same grasses we always had in our lawns until the great ryegrass robbery took off.

Don’t let your lawn fail!

We need healthy living lawns. They oxygenate the air we breathe. They remove CO2. They support biodiversity. They play a key role in our collective battle to stop killing the world and everything that lives on it.  Listen to what nature tells you!

And it’s so easy! All you have to do is read what it says on the packet. If the seed includes ryegrass, we’d suggest to put it back on the shelf.

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